5G Technology Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Government initiatives and infrastructure investments: With a surging push to implement 5G across multiple countries worldwide, the opportunities are rife for key players in the market. Additionally, with efforts intensifying to lay the foundation for the advent of 6G, the investments in existing 5G infrastructure is poised to remain high. For instance, more than USD 80 billion has been allocated in the U.S. between 2020 and 2025 for technical training in wireless and broadband. Additional investments are funneled under the aegis of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Such proactive investments improve the telecommunications workforce, whilst improving the 5G infrastructure development.
   
• Expansion of smart cities and IoT applications: The increasing investments in smart city initiatives have favorably impacted the demand for 5G technology. To create an interconnected city manned by smart systems, it is imperative to invest in 5G infrastructure. Additionally, IoT applications require ultra-fast connectivity for seamless functioning. The convergence of these trends, along with the increase in smartphone users, is expected to create a sustained demand for 5G technology throughout the market’s forecast timeline. The table below highlights recent major investments made in smart cities:

Challenges

• High deployment costs and infrastructure investment: The 5G technology market has faced considerable impediments related to the high costs associated with infrastructure deployment. Moreover, the establishment of 5G networks requires considerable investment in small cells, new base stations, and advanced technologies such as beamforming and Massive MIMO. The market analysis reveals that the average cost per base station installation is estimated to be around USD 200,001, which makes it financially challenging for telecom operators. In addition, the shift to 5G requires a dense network of small cells, advanced antennas, and fiber optic cables, which are considerably more expensive than the infrastructure used for the previous generations of wireless networks.